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Yes, college is worth it, but when it comes to employment and earnings, not all college majors are created equal. That is the summary of a new study released by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce.

The table to the left provides the unemployment rate and average earnings of recent college graduates in general categories of study. The report also breaks each of these categories into more specific majors, and that is important because some areas of the economy are still more depressed than others.

For example, someone well versed in math and the sciences may more easily find a job in healthcare or engineering, and choose that over being a math or science teacher because the initial and long-term earnings in the healthcare and engineering fields is higher than in education. Conversely, finding a job as an architect may be a real challenge, but if you can find one, the pay is pretty good.

The report says, “The risk of unemployment among recent college graduates depends on their major. The unemployment rate for recent graduates is highest in Architecture (13.9 percent) because of the collapse of the construction and home building industry in the recession. Unemployment rates are generally higher in non-technical majors, such as the Arts (11.1 percent), Humanities and Liberal Arts (9.4 percent), Social Science (8.9 percent) and Law and Public Policy (8.1 percent). “

Technical majors are experiencing good employment and good initial earnings, but both vary depending on the specific area of the major.

“Unemployment in majors related to computers and mathematics vary widely depending on the technical and scientific content of the major. Employers are still hiring technical computer specialists who can write software and invent new applications. But for information specialists who use software to manipulate, mine, and disseminate information, hiring slows down in recessions. We can see the difference in unemployment between people who invent computer technology as opposed to people who use computer technology.”

“The unemployment rate for recent college graduates in Information Systems has spiked to 11.7 percent, while the rates for majors in Computer Science and Mathematics are 7.8 percent and 6.0 percent, respectively. “

Furthermore, "Majors that are more closely aligned with particular occupations and industries tend to experience lower unemployment rates. Majors such as Healthcare, Education and those related to technical occupations tend to have lower unemployment rates than more general majors, like Humanities and Liberal Arts, where graduates are broadly dispersed across occupations and industries. Unemployment rates for recent graduates in Healthcare and Education are 5.4 percent compared to 9.4 percent for people who majored in Humanities and the Liberal Arts.”

Okay, so is a liberal arts degree not that great for getting a job? Having sat with a bunch of college admissions counselors recently who were debating liberal arts degrees at a luncheon, I think the liberal arts purists would argue, despite the numbers, that students with a liberal arts degree are better prepared to adapt in the ever-changing workforce. A topic for another study perhaps, and there are more coming.

Tony Carnevale, the Director of the Center on Education and the Workforce, told me that they will be looking into healthcare as a specific industry, competencies required by occupation, the value of industry-based certificate programs, what is driving the increase in value of skills and the employability returns on higher education.

"Twenty five years ago the focus was just to get a college degree. Now it matters what you major in. And getting work experience and advanced degrees pay off in higher earnings throughout your career," said Carnevale.

Researchers Carnevale, Cheah and Strohl, who led this study, have decades of high level expertise in education, the economy and the workforce. The center's team is a who's who of those industries, and all Georgetown professors. Their work gives us some much needed information with which to consider college majors that have a greater likelihood of a job waiting down the road that pays well. It also answers the big question.